:^j^Tirr -v. 



BIRDS OFFENSIVE IN CERTAIN SEASONS TO 

 FRUIT-GROWERS AND AGRICULTURISTS. 



There appears to me to be a part of a certain section of 

 the class Aves that has no direct value in the interest of 

 the growers, while the smaller portion of it supplies an 

 indirect help that is by no means a feeble one, though much 

 underrated. T refer to the Parrot tribe. In it there are 

 two divisions — (a) Brush* tongues, (b) Tongues without 

 brushes. 



The portion (b) has little to be said in its favour that 

 calls for special mention, but that little may be noticed in 

 the second of the subdivisions — (b i.), cockatoos which fre- 

 quent the agricultural area, and are more or less hurtful 

 {b II.), cockatoos which frequent the heavy timber adjacent 

 to certain fruit-growing areas, and which are beneficial. 



The part (a), of which certain Lories — the Musky (Glossop- 

 sitlaciis concinnus), Shaw; the Little (G. pusiUus), Shaw; 

 and the Purple-crowned (G. porphijrocephalus), Dietr. — form 

 the backbone, is of much more interest to us. It is the 

 portion that, holds the great mass of parrots that visit us 



» Dr. Garrod says that " it is only an excessive development of the papilhc which 

 are always found on the lingual surface." 



